Part Three: Woman to Woman
A few days later, she knocked on my door on a Tuesday morning while Irvin was at work.
She was holding a little potted succulent. “A thank-you,” she said, “for being so welcoming.” I invited her in, because what else do you do? I poured two cups of coffee, and we sat across from each other at my kitchen table, the same table where I’d told Irvin she was flirting with him.
We talked about nothing for a few minutes. The weather. A new restaurant downtown. Whether the HOA was ever going to fix the streetlight at the corner.
Then Vanessa took a slow sip of her coffee, set the cup down, and smiled at me.
“I’m going to take your husband.”
For a second, I honestly thought she was joking. I even laughed, once, the way you laugh when someone says something so strange your brain hasn’t caught up yet.
